~ PALEO Carb Cycling... "How To" outline ~

Sunday, July 07, 2013

Q&A: How do you “carb cycle” on a Paleo Diet? April 13, 2012 By Allison Moyer

Question: I’m Paleo and have been reading a lot about the effectiveness of carb cycling. How would I carb cycle on a Paleo diet being that Paleo is low carb naturally?

SUPER question!!!! But keep in mind that Paleo isn’t LOW carb it’s MODERATE carb- you’re simply pulling your carbs from fruits and veggies as opposed to grains and legumes. It’s a shame that mainstream school of thought has widely accepted that in order for a food item to qualify as a carb it must be starchy and be a grain. NOT SO. Fruits and vegetables are carbohydrates as well and have to be accounted for when calculating out daily carbohydrate intakes- VEGGIES ARE NOT FREEBIES.

If you were a NON Paleo eater you’d more then likely simply remove the grains from your diet for a day or two each week to constitute a carb cycle, but since Paleo athletes already are grain/legume/dairy free, then that means we need to look to eliminate the sugar/starchier carbs that we are consuming. Carb cycling can be VERY effective at weight loss and body recomp, but how you structure your cycle will largely depend upon what you’re eating on a regular basis.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
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- I recommend 2-3 days per week simply DROPPING the more insulin spiking carbohydrates from your daily dietary intake- such as fruits and yam or potato (if you’re eating yam or potato).

- The other key component to doing a low carb diet a few days a week is to make sure you’re taking in adequate amounts of lean protein and fat so that your caloric intake doesn’t dip too low (lower then 1200 for women and lower then 1800 for men are levels which I tend to not want to go below when working with clients unless we’re in the last stage of a contest prep).

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SAMPLE MENU:
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A great sample plan for carb restricted days would be: